Elf- congrats on your win btw. Yeah for the budget one. You need to run at least 11 fetches for her to reliably be a 4/4, and hooting mandrills is aweful synergy with her. As for wht my main version looks like, i run smiters for testing. I wanna see how antidelver i can be while retaining my matchups. If cruise is banned... (More talk about this then i care to hear, but wizards has been pretty clear they are thinking about it) id probably switch back withput caring.
And yes. The thread isnt abput price, ita about competitiveness. As long as people are showing what the intend to buy thus arent angry when people say "you need 4 of each fetch" its fine. But if your saying ive only got 20 bucks to build zoo, it wont work here. Thats the general rule of all the threads.
did testing with hooters. They arent as good a goyf. Sorry, we all want the dream to be real but it is not. Hooters feels more like smiters, but better in very late games (cheaper, discard and counters irrelivent) Smiter is still better early game, prividing you have the mana, and goyf is still a 2 mana dude who doesnt die to bolt. This guy isnt really a mana dude. Hes more like Serra Avenger he just isnt played until turn 3. Even in a game where you go "fetch, nacatl, pass. Nacatl is bolted. Fetch, bolt, kird pass." thats 4 things in your yard, and you still cant cast him until turn 3. and thats assuming everything goes the grave way.
He aint goyf. But hes a good replacement for it, which ususaly you know I dont say that kinda thing. It also means that 1 drop zoo players are free to see new options... But he does cut you off of knight (not the end of the world) grim (again, not the end) Scooze (more relivent) some sided grave hates (rest in peace, which 1 drop zoo can play) but he makes things like mutagenic growth and gut shot better for what its worth. Heres my current budget list. Its 100 dollars in MTGO, 120 in paper, and transitions nicely from 1 drop zoo to full on zoo.
Anything under 100 bucks for this deck still needs to go into the budget discussion thread. As far as I'm concerned, budget and competitiveness is two separate beasts, but can play on eachothers as factors. The list above is still good enough I could see it taking down a daily. Still, I wouldnt say its beter than someone running goyf. If your making a reasoning as to "I'm not playing this because I cant afford it" I got to draw the line somewhere. Currently the shocks and 8 of our fetches are "cheap" so Id say you're budget if you arent running them/ intending to get them to use.
Basicly that marks the line, where budget concerns turn into budget lists.
Reflects what i experienced with it.
He does indeed need some food in the Yard, so running Mutagenic Growth and some Instants are a necessity to cast him in time.
It's a good topdeck mid to late game because his 4/4 Body is huge.
What is that Sideboard kind of thing?
4 Destructive Revelry? Eletrickery over Fallout is a risky thing. Sometimes 1/1 Spirit Token become 2/2 and that is ugly.
What are people's thoughts on this? I'm not sure on the mana base, and I wanted to try savage knuckleblade in here over knight since delving is a nombo with knight.
Why is Delving a nonbo? You can Delve out all those lands you sacrifice, although I guess you should be winning at that point. Have you had any luck with this build? I've been seeing great results with my Counter-Cat brew, you might want to check out the thread if you're into casting Treasure Cruise with Wild Nacatl.
Delving away lands shrinks the knight, thats why knuckleblade is in its place. You never want knight to shrink and die to a lightning bolt.
I haven't gotten a chance to play around with it yet, but I do want to at some point.
Counter cat deck looks pretty sweet. Although I feel with the amount of spells your playing it seems like young pyromancer should be in the deck, then you probably don't need the green and you end up just playing UR delver. I have a bunch of different blue splashed zoo decks, and pretty much all of them are creature heavy, not spell heavy, its more my style than anything.
I'll give counter cat a chance, but I'm not huge on spell heavy decks like this, although it does look really awesome.
You couldnrun clasm there or fallout. In that list it makes no dufference. They got their pros and cons:
Trickery:better against delver. It kills everything sans flipped delver. Instant speed allows you to overloa on their turn. Beingable to gut shot for one isnt a jokr either. Better against Afffinity too, as it kills modt things but can stop ensoul and plating. Worse against most other aggro decks. However, this should be noted. It doesnt hit your dudes, meaning it plays nice with guide lynx thalia pridemage grim lavamancer or any other hatebear your running.
Clasm is the best value of all the small sweepers we can run. Ita 2 mana for 2 damage but demands the requirement all your dudes have 3 or higher butts. Its sorcery so theres not trick to it . But it will kill most things you need to. This is better vs rdw and affinity and other random aggro decks, but worse for delver, as its not cheap enough to go under counters, instant speed to wait for the tap out an cant really be used as pinch removal. It also gets hit by snare.
Fallout is for tempo only. It can hurt aggro as well (id still side it in agasnts affinity for example) but inst as timely or reliable. But it cant be countered (by abilities too, it was printed to kill fae) And its the dome, which is cool for us too because its what we wanna do. Instant speed gives us the most value too. Since im of the opinion (not a popular one mind you) delver is the new fae, it works well here.
Basicly it boils down to what you are looking for. They all can be used whenever... They generally do th same thing and none is better than another, its just their good at different angles of the same job. Mostly you'll run into it being this:
1. Im using hate bears. They i need them to live. Use trickery.
2. Too many aggro decks in my meta. Use pyroclasm.
3. Too much delver, merfolk and fae (read, tempo with counters) use fallout.
4. I run mana ramp like birds or nobles. Use bonfire.
Tested hooting mandrels at my LGS today, they aren't very good. Smiters are more reliable at 3 and can't be countered matters. Trample is good, but we have Rampagers for that.
Has anyone tried a sword main? I know they fell out of favor because of abrupt decay but making our 2/3s bigger seems pretty good.
I'm trying birds, domri and a sword main.
Edit: newest list.
Testing the birds, sword and x1s
Tested hooting mandrels at my LGS today, they aren't very good. Smiters are more reliable at 3 and can't be countered matters. Trample is good, but we have Rampagers for that.
Has anyone tried a sword main? I know they fell out of favor because of abrupt decay but making our 2/3s bigger seems pretty good.
I'm trying birds, domri and a sword main.
Edit: newest list.
Testing the birds, sword and x1s
You couldnrun clasm there or fallout. In that list it makes no dufference. They got their pros and cons:
Trickery:better against delver. It kills everything sans flipped delver. Instant speed allows you to overloa on their turn. Beingable to gut shot for one isnt a jokr either. Better against Afffinity too, as it kills modt things but can stop ensoul and plating. Worse against most other aggro decks. However, this should be noted. It doesnt hit your dudes, meaning it plays nice with guide lynx thalia pridemage grim lavamancer or any other hatebear your running.
Clasm is the best value of all the small sweepers we can run. Ita 2 mana for 2 damage but demands the requirement all your dudes have 3 or higher butts. Its sorcery so theres not trick to it . But it will kill most things you need to. This is better vs rdw and affinity and other random aggro decks, but worse for delver, as its not cheap enough to go under counters, instant speed to wait for the tap out an cant really be used as pinch removal. It also gets hit by snare.
Fallout is for tempo only. It can hurt aggro as well (id still side it in agasnts affinity for example) but inst as timely or reliable. But it cant be countered (by abilities too, it was printed to kill fae) And its the dome, which is cool for us too because its what we wanna do. Instant speed gives us the most value too. Since im of the opinion (not a popular one mind you) delver is the new fae, it works well here.
Basicly it boils down to what you are looking for. They all can be used whenever... They generally do th same thing and none is better than another, its just their good at different angles of the same job. Mostly you'll run into it being this:
1. Im using hate bears. They i need them to live. Use trickery.
2. Too many aggro decks in my meta. Use pyroclasm.
3. Too much delver, merfolk and fae (read, tempo with counters) use fallout.
4. I run mana ramp like birds or nobles. Use bonfire.
Whoa, great answer. Some Aspects i wouldn't come along for myself...instant speed, hurting your own creatures, uncoutarable, vs. Tempo, Aggro...
The List with Mandrills and Smiter looks interesting...I'll give it a try because my Gruul List isn't the perfect choice to run Hooting Mandrills.
I really do wanna try domain in a daily. Just those giests... Ive made the perfect list for
The mera too and i think its better thEN straight naya... But i really dont have 60 i can drop on an online playset.
I do have it in paper... There is a free modern touri at super games... But its also my 4 year aniversery... Do i go into the dog house and play magic or spend more money and sleep on the bed tonight. Decisions decisions.
Today ill be pretty much sitting on my hands all day at work so it would be a good day to get a hold of me if you need advice.
@waerlock: it probably will never really show up. I was a big fan of skeletons in midrange and control lists because games go long enough they can appear, but in aggro decks I prefer redundancy. Like i only use wolfrun if i run knight. Because then im running "five" copies of it.
So my only real experance with swords is from legacy with stoneforge (which last aaron forsythe sai anything about it, its gone for good.) where i could run "five sets of swords" due to having two different swords and 3-4 stoneforges. The same rules apply however, you want to run the sword that has the most removal protection and alpha stike ability, rather than their effects. So in this format, at least online, thats bolts an vapor snags. Sword of fire and ice.
I ran two feast an famine when rock was huge in thenaideboard. I guess its doable, but only if your doing it as extra preemtive meta hate as a meta call (like people main decking kor firewalkers lately)
@polymorph: years of experience. Trickery is just new tech ive been testing that uve never used before, so i have a tendency to add it a bit more.
Today ill be pretty much sitting on my hands all day at work so it would be a good day to get a hold of me if you need advice.
Ok, I will start then
what do you think of Experiment One currently ? Run in a Small Zoo list (Naya) with 4x Knight of the Reliquary and 4x Tarmogoyf as the "big" ones.
The question is highly dependent on your meta. Id say e1 is great when backed with enough 1 drops to be 3/3 turn 2? Awesome. But alot of the online meta is running gut shot and forked bolt and magma spray. If your on the draw, izzet charn gets you as well, and any useless burn they couldn't use it gets turned on late game if you drop an E1 in top deck mode. If your local Meda is scape shift and delver I wouldn't run him as well as if people are running heat against delver because that is splash damage against E1.
Against other decks that are running electrolyze or shock damage in general, you want is a great choice however I think E1 has gone down a little bit when the new fetches came in. It's not that he's less powerful it's just other options like steppe lynx are suddenly more powerful. Currently if I had to choose between the two I would choose steppe lynx, again this is in a netted that does not have electrolyze were shocked type effects.
On line since the meta-is mostly Delver or decks that fight against delver with efficient removal, i'd rather use Loam lion kird ape and wild nacatl, as thy dont die to that. If i coulf get away wth lynx right now i would.
2 Pages ago you mentioned some interesting Sideboard Choice, on of 'em was... Witchstalker
I'd like to test that one as a 2-of in my Side.
My local meta does have some Esper Control, 4C Gifts, Faerie and Esper Teachings Player.
Is Stalker a little bit of overextending or do you expect it to be a fine Choice vs. those Decks?
Your honestly better off running voice of resurgence. It takes double removal on their turn to kill it, letting you get free spells in twice and not worry about removal. If they cant remove it, you basicly win. Its also cheaper. But if your looking for an unremovable threat against control, domri also probably works better at 3 cmc. I cant tell you how many games id play domri turn 3 against control and they either lose slowly or concede. The guy makes you out draw them (thats crazy) and when he pops you win. Ivr had games where they sweeped my board clean. Then i drew a smiter, popped him, cast smiter and swung for 8. Then i drew, cast ghor clan swung for 16. He revealed a hand full of wall of omens (useless, trample) an paths.
Domri, even sided, is probably where youd rather be at.
I feel like I'm going a little crazy, so I'm going to throw my thoughts out and stay open minded.
I.... don't understand grim lavamancer.
It is anti-synergetic with goyf, KoTR, and possibly scooze. With cruises running around, we are even more reliant on our yard to boost our goyf, because they will exile theirs.
It's super fragile in a world of U/R Delver lists..
It's slow. It doesn't activate for a whole turn, it ties up mana, and you have to have fuel, for it.
I do understand that it usually at least a 2-for-1 and can potentially zap a few creatures.
Holy 1 and 2 ofs Batman.
I keep seeing lists with lots of <4 ofs. This summer we were basically running all 4 ofs with maybe 2 or so 3 ofs.
The 1 and 2 ofs make our deck so much less consistent. It's exactly not what we want to be doing. Slow decks can afford those numbers because they rely on the game going longer and normally have card draw/selection/engines.
We are fast, really fast. We can't really afford to have variance in our draws.
I reread this and it seems a bit "aggressively worded". It isn't meant to be. I would just love to hear why I'm wrong.
Well that depends, sometimes you don't need/want 4 of a certain card but want to draw 1-2 throughout the course of the game. For me it's Pridemage/Scooze/Knight's. Usually I wanna curve out there and GCR to win, or use Pridemage/Scooze to help push through a weird interaction.
I am in the process of trying to get a playset of Goblin Guides if I could run small zoo for along while I will be happy. I wont be able to run Zoo with Goyfs cause I just can't afford them now, or in the future
Tested hooting mandrels at my LGS today, they aren't very good. Smiters are more reliable at 3 and can't be countered matters. Trample is good, but we have Rampagers for that.
Has anyone tried a sword main? I know they fell out of favor because of abrupt decay but making our 2/3s bigger seems pretty good.
I'm trying birds, domri and a sword main.
Edit: newest list.
Testing the birds, sword and x1s
Take out E1. 7 1 drops you run dont evolve him, and 6 two drops dont make him past 2. Use kird ape or something else.
Agree with E1 in this one. This is the type of deck that Ape is better in. Where I'm running E1 he offers a a bit more value. As every other creature in the deck will evolve him and more than not get him to 3+.
I'm also thinking the one of Grim Lavamancer won't be great. It's more of a SB tech to me. I'd pull it and the birds personally. I just don't know if you need birds for your build. Turn 2 Domri is a thing but with what he is primarily used for (removal/digging) I wouldn't want to sacrifice space for more beaters over mana dorks.
Sometimes numbers can be misleading. Take for example if your running 4 bolt, 4 helix, 2 rampager. Why not do a full 4? Because youll overload yourself on removal. Thats 10 slots of removal, a 1 outta 6 chance to get it. This ensures you get 1 every opener at least.
Same goes for other things as well. 4 goyf, 3 smitter. Why? Because its not 4 goyf 3 smitter, its 7 end curve beat sticks, making sure you have one a game, but no more than that.
Sometimes its less simple. Utility creatures are like that. I run about... 8 to 10. The reason why is because, while theyre creatures incount them more as spells that, at worst, can still attack. Destructive revelry can do what pridemage does for less mana, but pridemage is nnever dead.
Secondly zoo isnt rush aggro, its sligh. Speed is secondary to pressure. This means were slower, but have a better mid game than other aggro. As such, you sometimes need to prepare for more grindy games. Races dont win every time for us.
As far as grim, i cut him as well (cept my testing thalia version) however, sometimes ya got to do what yoy got to do. In a situation with a knight and a grim on te board it would suck if i needed big damage. However, if i needed weenie removal, its great. Shes feeding him.
I dunno wheres the best to get tix... Generally i use mtgo traders to get bot credits, which is more or less the same for their bots only. I made a video of me using them to make 1000 dollars in online store credit by selling bulk paper. Its called $0 to z00.
My current domain zoo is pretty stock. If im missin cards let me know, im doing this over the phone:
Now, lets be clear. Its not tested. Im sure its probably better than most theory crafted list simply from my other zoo testing,but dont take my word on it. That mana base should work. Youll die to a blood moon, but since everyones expecting to play delver (even delver) they arent pack blood moon really. Plus, id rather not be color screwed than play around a potential leathal card. I mean its domain zoo. Im greedy i might as well go all in. So you wont be fetching basics easily, but you have access to all your colors at all times.
Goyf and cruise are weird togather, but it will still work. Cruise is to restock your hand wth burn. By this poiny goyf will be irrelivent, your looking for end game reach. Plus, cruise will always restock your yard anyways. Just dont cruise before attacks and remember if your goyf took damage, if your shrink him, he might die.
Snap makes the side better by being exrta copies of what you sided in, and adds more burn. Weve seen snap an cruise work togsther thanks to delver. Growth is good tech in a red blue world and is free feed for cruise.
Te side is more experimental but the main is probably so solid it is a bit forgiving. Domain is naturally worse vs aggro and tempo (life loss) to make a better combo and midrange matchup.... But you should be able to race delver. Your burn is so crazy good, and your cruises grt more so we should be favored. Wlectrickery here over fallout because of our giest and snap.
Rdw is probably the worst matchup. Id probably side out giest and the growths there to fit in all the rdw hate. Lets be honest this deck bleeds alot, so that 5 slots of rdw hate is nessary. Id fetxh for naya there, and only get blue lands tapped to stem that.
3 wear tear has more to do with boogles than affinity, but thats relivent too. It hits Ascendancy also. Same deal with swan song, but its also there for combo like twin and scapeshift too.
Charm isnthere as a cstch all. Its a counter, removal, and alpha strike. It could be anyrhing really, like aven mind cencor against pod and scapeshift, but i feel the pod matchup is uneasarry to side for. You have ebough big burn, sans comboing out you should beat them.
And yes. The thread isnt abput price, ita about competitiveness. As long as people are showing what the intend to buy thus arent angry when people say "you need 4 of each fetch" its fine. But if your saying ive only got 20 bucks to build zoo, it wont work here. Thats the general rule of all the threads.
Reflects what i experienced with it.
He does indeed need some food in the Yard, so running Mutagenic Growth and some Instants are a necessity to cast him in time.
It's a good topdeck mid to late game because his 4/4 Body is huge.
What is that Sideboard kind of thing?
4 Destructive Revelry? Eletrickery over Fallout is a risky thing. Sometimes 1/1 Spirit Token become 2/2 and that is ugly.
Green @ it's best
Delving away lands shrinks the knight, thats why knuckleblade is in its place. You never want knight to shrink and die to a lightning bolt.
I haven't gotten a chance to play around with it yet, but I do want to at some point.
Counter cat deck looks pretty sweet. Although I feel with the amount of spells your playing it seems like young pyromancer should be in the deck, then you probably don't need the green and you end up just playing UR delver. I have a bunch of different blue splashed zoo decks, and pretty much all of them are creature heavy, not spell heavy, its more my style than anything.
I'll give counter cat a chance, but I'm not huge on spell heavy decks like this, although it does look really awesome.
Trickery:better against delver. It kills everything sans flipped delver. Instant speed allows you to overloa on their turn. Beingable to gut shot for one isnt a jokr either. Better against Afffinity too, as it kills modt things but can stop ensoul and plating. Worse against most other aggro decks. However, this should be noted. It doesnt hit your dudes, meaning it plays nice with guide lynx thalia pridemage grim lavamancer or any other hatebear your running.
Clasm is the best value of all the small sweepers we can run. Ita 2 mana for 2 damage but demands the requirement all your dudes have 3 or higher butts. Its sorcery so theres not trick to it . But it will kill most things you need to. This is better vs rdw and affinity and other random aggro decks, but worse for delver, as its not cheap enough to go under counters, instant speed to wait for the tap out an cant really be used as pinch removal. It also gets hit by snare.
Fallout is for tempo only. It can hurt aggro as well (id still side it in agasnts affinity for example) but inst as timely or reliable. But it cant be countered (by abilities too, it was printed to kill fae) And its the dome, which is cool for us too because its what we wanna do. Instant speed gives us the most value too. Since im of the opinion (not a popular one mind you) delver is the new fae, it works well here.
Basicly it boils down to what you are looking for. They all can be used whenever... They generally do th same thing and none is better than another, its just their good at different angles of the same job. Mostly you'll run into it being this:
1. Im using hate bears. They i need them to live. Use trickery.
2. Too many aggro decks in my meta. Use pyroclasm.
3. Too much delver, merfolk and fae (read, tempo with counters) use fallout.
4. I run mana ramp like birds or nobles. Use bonfire.
And the side isnvery general i agree. Its just a very general deck people can start with and tune to their liking.
Has anyone tried a sword main? I know they fell out of favor because of abrupt decay but making our 2/3s bigger seems pretty good.
I'm trying birds, domri and a sword main.
Edit: newest list.
Testing the birds, sword and x1s
2 Experiment One
1 Grim Lavamancer
4 Wild Nacatl
2 Qasali Pridemage
4 Scavenging Ooze
2 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Ghor-Clan Rampager
3 Loxodon Smiters
1 Path to Exile
2 Boros Charm
4 Lightning Helix
2 Domri Rade
1 Sword of War and Peace
20 lands
3 Kor Firewalker
3 Path to Exile
2 Volcanic Fallout
2 Choke
2 Molten Rain
3 Destructive Revelry
Take out E1. 7 1 drops you run dont evolve him, and 6 two drops dont make him past 2. Use kird ape or something else.
What are your thoughts on a single sword?
Whoa, great answer. Some Aspects i wouldn't come along for myself...instant speed, hurting your own creatures, uncoutarable, vs. Tempo, Aggro...
The List with Mandrills and Smiter looks interesting...I'll give it a try because my Gruul List isn't the perfect choice to run Hooting Mandrills.
Green @ it's best
The mera too and i think its better thEN straight naya... But i really dont have 60 i can drop on an online playset.
I do have it in paper... There is a free modern touri at super games... But its also my 4 year aniversery... Do i go into the dog house and play magic or spend more money and sleep on the bed tonight. Decisions decisions.
Today ill be pretty much sitting on my hands all day at work so it would be a good day to get a hold of me if you need advice.
@waerlock: it probably will never really show up. I was a big fan of skeletons in midrange and control lists because games go long enough they can appear, but in aggro decks I prefer redundancy. Like i only use wolfrun if i run knight. Because then im running "five" copies of it.
So my only real experance with swords is from legacy with stoneforge (which last aaron forsythe sai anything about it, its gone for good.) where i could run "five sets of swords" due to having two different swords and 3-4 stoneforges. The same rules apply however, you want to run the sword that has the most removal protection and alpha stike ability, rather than their effects. So in this format, at least online, thats bolts an vapor snags. Sword of fire and ice.
I ran two feast an famine when rock was huge in thenaideboard. I guess its doable, but only if your doing it as extra preemtive meta hate as a meta call (like people main decking kor firewalkers lately)
@polymorph: years of experience. Trickery is just new tech ive been testing that uve never used before, so i have a tendency to add it a bit more.
Ok, I will start then
what do you think of Experiment One currently ? Run in a Small Zoo list (Naya) with 4x Knight of the Reliquary and 4x Tarmogoyf as the "big" ones.
Is it better or weaker than Loam Lion ?
Against other decks that are running electrolyze or shock damage in general, you want is a great choice however I think E1 has gone down a little bit when the new fetches came in. It's not that he's less powerful it's just other options like steppe lynx are suddenly more powerful. Currently if I had to choose between the two I would choose steppe lynx, again this is in a netted that does not have electrolyze were shocked type effects.
On line since the meta-is mostly Delver or decks that fight against delver with efficient removal, i'd rather use Loam lion kird ape and wild nacatl, as thy dont die to that. If i coulf get away wth lynx right now i would.
2 Pages ago you mentioned some interesting Sideboard Choice, on of 'em was...
Witchstalker
I'd like to test that one as a 2-of in my Side.
My local meta does have some Esper Control, 4C Gifts, Faerie and Esper Teachings Player.
Is Stalker a little bit of overextending or do you expect it to be a fine Choice vs. those Decks?
Green @ it's best
Domri, even sided, is probably where youd rather be at.
I.... don't understand grim lavamancer.
It is anti-synergetic with goyf, KoTR, and possibly scooze. With cruises running around, we are even more reliant on our yard to boost our goyf, because they will exile theirs.
It's super fragile in a world of U/R Delver lists..
It's slow. It doesn't activate for a whole turn, it ties up mana, and you have to have fuel, for it.
I do understand that it usually at least a 2-for-1 and can potentially zap a few creatures.
Holy 1 and 2 ofs Batman.
I keep seeing lists with lots of <4 ofs. This summer we were basically running all 4 ofs with maybe 2 or so 3 ofs.
The 1 and 2 ofs make our deck so much less consistent. It's exactly not what we want to be doing. Slow decks can afford those numbers because they rely on the game going longer and normally have card draw/selection/engines.
We are fast, really fast. We can't really afford to have variance in our draws.
I reread this and it seems a bit "aggressively worded". It isn't meant to be. I would just love to hear why I'm wrong.
Here's my list:
4 Goblin Guide
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Qasali Pridemage
3 Scavenging Ooze
3 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Ghor-Clan Rampager
4 Lightning Helix
2 Path to Exile
1 Domri Rade
4 Arid Mesa
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Windswept Heath
2 Stomping Ground
2 Temple Garden
2 Sacred Foundry
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Forest
1 Plains
I want to figure out though whether or not Grim's are correct or not. Not sure what to replace it with though.
Need a collection tracker? Use EchoMTG here: https://www.echomtg.com/r/7bb6961d/
Join the Zoo Discord: https://discord.gg/Yu6eTSTrzA
Modern
Small Zoo (http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/14-03-15-small-zoo/)
Green/White Hatebears (http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/08-02-15-hate/)
Legacy
Affinity (http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/stega/)
Commander
Heavenly Inferno Kaalia of the Vast (http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/heavenly-inferno-revised/)
That's a Handful Nekusar, the Mindrazer (http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/thats-a-handful/)
Uprising Sliver Overlord (http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/up-rising/)
Retired Decks
Jundassic (http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/jundassic/)
Melira Pod (http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/22-09-14-melira-pod/)
Dark Naya Zoo (http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/26-01-15-dark-naya-zoo/)
Naya Zoo (http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/18-10-14-my-zoo/)
Agree with E1 in this one. This is the type of deck that Ape is better in. Where I'm running E1 he offers a a bit more value. As every other creature in the deck will evolve him and more than not get him to 3+.
I'm also thinking the one of Grim Lavamancer won't be great. It's more of a SB tech to me. I'd pull it and the birds personally. I just don't know if you need birds for your build. Turn 2 Domri is a thing but with what he is primarily used for (removal/digging) I wouldn't want to sacrifice space for more beaters over mana dorks.
Same goes for other things as well. 4 goyf, 3 smitter. Why? Because its not 4 goyf 3 smitter, its 7 end curve beat sticks, making sure you have one a game, but no more than that.
Sometimes its less simple. Utility creatures are like that. I run about... 8 to 10. The reason why is because, while theyre creatures incount them more as spells that, at worst, can still attack. Destructive revelry can do what pridemage does for less mana, but pridemage is nnever dead.
Secondly zoo isnt rush aggro, its sligh. Speed is secondary to pressure. This means were slower, but have a better mid game than other aggro. As such, you sometimes need to prepare for more grindy games. Races dont win every time for us.
As far as grim, i cut him as well (cept my testing thalia version) however, sometimes ya got to do what yoy got to do. In a situation with a knight and a grim on te board it would suck if i needed big damage. However, if i needed weenie removal, its great. Shes feeding him.
I dunno wheres the best to get tix... Generally i use mtgo traders to get bot credits, which is more or less the same for their bots only. I made a video of me using them to make 1000 dollars in online store credit by selling bulk paper. Its called $0 to z00.
My current domain zoo is pretty stock. If im missin cards let me know, im doing this over the phone:
4 arid mesa
4 wooded foothills
1 plains
1 forest
1 hallowed fountain
1 steam vent
1 blood crypt
1 temple garden
1 sacred foundry
1 stomping grounds
4 kird ape
1 loam loin
2 snapcaster mage
4 tarmogoyf
4 giest of st. traft
4 lightning bolt
4 lightning helix
4 path to exile
2 mutagenic growth
4 tribal flames
3 treasure cruise
2 choke
2 electrickery
2 swan song
3 wear//tear
4 kor firewalker
1 dragon's claw
1 temur charm
Now, lets be clear. Its not tested. Im sure its probably better than most theory crafted list simply from my other zoo testing,but dont take my word on it. That mana base should work. Youll die to a blood moon, but since everyones expecting to play delver (even delver) they arent pack blood moon really. Plus, id rather not be color screwed than play around a potential leathal card. I mean its domain zoo. Im greedy i might as well go all in. So you wont be fetching basics easily, but you have access to all your colors at all times.
Goyf and cruise are weird togather, but it will still work. Cruise is to restock your hand wth burn. By this poiny goyf will be irrelivent, your looking for end game reach. Plus, cruise will always restock your yard anyways. Just dont cruise before attacks and remember if your goyf took damage, if your shrink him, he might die.
Snap makes the side better by being exrta copies of what you sided in, and adds more burn. Weve seen snap an cruise work togsther thanks to delver. Growth is good tech in a red blue world and is free feed for cruise.
Te side is more experimental but the main is probably so solid it is a bit forgiving. Domain is naturally worse vs aggro and tempo (life loss) to make a better combo and midrange matchup.... But you should be able to race delver. Your burn is so crazy good, and your cruises grt more so we should be favored. Wlectrickery here over fallout because of our giest and snap.
Rdw is probably the worst matchup. Id probably side out giest and the growths there to fit in all the rdw hate. Lets be honest this deck bleeds alot, so that 5 slots of rdw hate is nessary. Id fetxh for naya there, and only get blue lands tapped to stem that.
3 wear tear has more to do with boogles than affinity, but thats relivent too. It hits Ascendancy also. Same deal with swan song, but its also there for combo like twin and scapeshift too.
Charm isnthere as a cstch all. Its a counter, removal, and alpha strike. It could be anyrhing really, like aven mind cencor against pod and scapeshift, but i feel the pod matchup is uneasarry to side for. You have ebough big burn, sans comboing out you should beat them.